Where I talk about knitting and other things

Warning: Soap Box

I know not all almost-three-hundred followers I have will read this. In fact you may even disagree with me. And that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

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Begin Rant:

This semester I’m taking a Visual Rhetoric class, and today we began watching Miss Representation (it’s on Netflix if you’re interested). It got me thinking.

According to this movie, I am not an accurate representation of my age group (that’s not really surprising), but neither am I the average for the American woman.

The movie is basically about what the media is telling girls and young women, and it’s the opposite of the message I got growing up. Maybe it’s because I’m the child of a Boomer rather than the grandchild of one (as many of my peers are). Maybe it’s because all the women in my family are incredibly independent (even if they stayed home). Maybe it’s because I grew up watching Star Trek, and as my mother jokes, that’s where I learned my morals.

I’ve seen what Miss Representation talks about around me. Girls and women who aren’t happy with their bodies or don’t have any self worth. Girls who think that they’re not good enough because they’re girls, and that’s what the media is telling us.

I look at all of that and I simply don’t understand it.

I don’t pay attention to fashion or celebrities. Let them live their lives, fashion I usually think is ugly as sin, and the hardest decision I have in the morning is which pair of jeans to wear (mainly, the least dirty). I don’t wear makeup or do my hair. Yes I have long hair. It’s that way because I like it that way. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve had tell me I should cut my hair. I laugh in their faces. With how curly and thick my hair is, it’s more under control the longer it is!

Yet, that’s all stuff that, according to mass media, I should care about. Yet I don’t. I don’t see the value in caring. What does it matter? My boyfriend loves me regardless of how long my hair is or how much I weigh. I don’t define myself by ‘male’ standards. I’m my own person.

I didn’t do ‘girly’ things growing up. I helped my grandfather fix the car, I played my gameboy and my playstation. I took a small engines and an electrical class in HS simply because I could (and don’t get me started on how hard it was to get into those as a girl). I know where the dipstick is on my car, and over the weekend I even fixed the radiator of said car.

I like what I like and I am who I am and if you don’t like it, well, that’s your problem, not mine.

I’ve had people tell me I should run for office. I laugh at that too. I’m more stubborn than a mule and have all the subtlety of a Saturn V launch. I’d get kicked out of office as soon as I was in because the first time someone came to me with a packet of lies, half-truths and all that other stuff you get in politics, I’d tell them exactly what I thought of all of it and to take a hike (though I would very much like to give congress a piece of my mind).

I don’t conform and I speak my mind. I’ll probably have to conform to an extent when I get in the workplace as above qualities of stubbornness and ‘subtlety’ won’t get me very far, but I hope I can find a job where that’s valued rather than not.

This was all just on my mind as I headed home from school today, and since I have this blog, I felt that I could post here. Yes, I know I normally don’t have any politics or drama or anything on here other than my crafting, but this just wouldn’t leave me alone this afternoon.

End Rant

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And now the knitting.

I finished the first sleeve and started the second. So that’s 4 pieces down, 1 piece to go.

There’s the sleeve with the front panels and the back. It’s all going to get blocked before I sew it together.

I may not be going to Rhinebeck anymore (no more bus from the LYS), so there isn’t really a set due ‘date’ on the sweater anymore, but I’m so far along I might as well finish it up while I’m on a roll.

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2 thoughts on “Warning: Soap Box”

I think your outlook is much healthier than those women in our society who were the focus of the movie you saw. And you’re a happier person because of that. Also, your sweater is amazing and beautiful! I will be sure to take a look at it when I see you (and it) next.